Ukraine wants to buy Kazakh and Turkmen gas

Ukraine has once again raised the question of buying gas from Kazakhstan, Tengrinews reports citing RIA Novosti.

Head of the European integration department at the Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Ministry Mykhailo Bno-Airiyan said that Ukraine was interested in buying gas from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

According to Bno-Airiyan the question of buying the gas was raised again during the meeting between Vice Primer Minister of Ukraine Gennady Zubko, Vice Premier Minister of Kazakhstan Bakhytzhan Sagintayev and Minister of Energy of Ukraine Vladimir Demchishin.

"We are ready to buy gas from Kazakhstan. We should return to this issue. There are transit issues, but we have to work it out," Bno-Airiyan tweeted. "There is a similar situation with transit of gas from Turkmenistan. We need the transit of Central Asian gas," he added.

It was reported by in October 2014 Ukraine's temporary charge d'affaires in Kazakhstan Yuri Lazebnik expressed Ukraine’s interest in getting gas from Kazakhstan bypassing Russia. But that time Kazakhstan did not confirm that any official request from Ukraine regarding gas was made.

Meanwhile, after ineffective three way negotiations on July 30, 2015, Ukraine stopped buying gas from Russia. On July 1, GazProm confirmed termination of gas delivery to Ukraine. Currently, Ukraine is receiving gas from Europe.